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Yo lavo el calcetín y el suéter, y él lava los de ese niño.

Yo lavo el calcetín y el suéter, y él lava los de ese niño.
I wash the sock and the sweater, and he washes that boy's.
From Lesson 139:Avoiding repetition (el de, la de, los de, las de)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Yo lavo el calcetín y el suéter, y él lava los de ese niño.

Why does the sentence use los de here?
Los de literally means "the ones of" or, in this case, "that boy's". The word los replaces the nouns so we don't have to repeat them. Because the speaker is talking about two masculine things (el calcetín and el suéter), they are grouped together as a masculine plural (los).
Could I say el de ese niño instead?
You would use el de if you were only talking about one masculine item, like just the sweater. Since you are referring to both the sock and the sweater together, you must use the plural los de.
Why does él lava have an accent mark on él, but el calcetín does not?
The written accent marks the difference between two words that sound exactly the same. Él with an accent means "he", while el without the accent is the masculine word for "the".
Why is it ese niño instead of eso niño for "that boy"?
When pointing out a specific masculine singular noun like niño, you always use ese. Eso is a neutral word used for general situations or unidentified objects, and it is never placed directly in front of a noun.

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